Pages 5-7 of my article. This originally appeared in "The Coffin Corner," the magazine of the Professional Football Researchers Association, in 2023.

With yesterday's announcement that the Chicago Bears are likely moving to Hammond, Ind., this seems a good time to share my story about how "Papa Bear" George Halas launched his illustrious 64-year career in professional football in neither Chicago nor Decatur, but in Hammond.

Wait, it’s not?!

A Walter Reed, William Gorgas, Jonas Salk, Robert Gallo, C. Everett Koop, or (ducking from the rotten tomatoes I expect certain MAGA scholars to throw) Anthony Fauci, he is not.

YouTube video by 🎬 𝕄𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕣.𝔼.𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕟𝕖 🍿 The Great American Melting Pot 🇺🇸🎶

This was a huge part of our childhood but I’m sure they didn’t show this on South African TV

m.youtube.com/watch?v=M-bc...

I love fake spring! I did not take the bait, though, and turn the water to my outside spigot back on. I have a strict St. Patrick's Day cutoff for the absolute earliest I'll do that. (Mostly because I know I'll forget to turn it back off when we get to the 20s & my piping/valve could freeze.)

Still not sure what I’ll do long-term. But I know that nobody deserves veiled death threats online…especially not for simply posting an anecdote about his late uncle meeting the same pope twice.

Is this what we’ve come to as a society? Can’t you do better, Elon? Sigh…

My gut reaction is to delete it all. Marketing my books is nice, especially when I have an upcoming speaking event or some positive press to share; but my family is so much more important than any of that. Part of me feels, though, that if I quit, then “they” win…

I noticed the vitriol and (usually) anonymous bravado of the “Twitter heroes” right away, but they were a minor annoyance back in 2018. They got much worse during Covid, and the debates over lockdowns & vaccines. But they’ve REALLY gotten bad since Elon Musk took over.

Kept this up with my 2025 book “Eckie,” & also joined BlueSky. I focus on sports history & Chicago history, plus some items from my job at Chicago Fire Dept. I never make, though I occasionally reply to, posts about politics & religion (I’m fiercely independent & Catholic, BTW).

Had no interest in Twitter, but in 2018, with my book “War Football” coming out the next year, my publisher urged me to join for publicity purposes. Came to enjoy it very much. I made friends with fellow sports history experts & got to share some cool tidbits as Twitter threads.

I was an early adopter of Facebook - a great way to stay in touch with far-flung friends and family, share photos of adventures, & let my network know that I was engaged, then married, then a dad. Also joined LinkedIn early, to find contacts for my freelance writing.

I’ve been harassed on social media before, almost always by anonymous or pseudonym-using posters. Absolute cowards, all of them. This is the first time, though, that anyone had implicitly called for my death. This leads me to rethink the whole social media thing.

I reported both his replies; Twitter limited the visibility of his first, though not his second, post (“This Post May violate X’s rules against Abuse.”) and did NOT ban or suspend this guy. Ok, great, makes me feel really safe… Though I guess it’s good he only has 64 followers.

Crackpot called out my “sad, bitter irony & arrogance,” assuming wrongly that I’m Serbian (hence the apparent irony). I responded, point by point. Then he unleashed his two-reply tirade, called for swift karma & judgment (death, I can only assume?) for me, then blocked me.

The crackpot attacked me, then posted a conspiracy-filled video, “The Vatican’s Holocaust,” alleging the Holy See harbored Croatian Nazi collaborator Ante Pavelic, then helped him escape to Argentina. (Pavelic did hide in the Vatican briefly, with forged papers & in disguise.)

My crime? Agreeing with someone who says a photo of Jeffrey Epstein with Pope John Paul II is meaningless, that popes take pictures with hundreds if not thousands of randos daily - then relating a story about my uncle, who met Paul VI both before & during his papacy.

Posted to the "other" site:
If I get unexpectedly “unalived” in the near future, here’s your prime suspect: a pseudonym-using, Vatican-hating Twitter crackpot, who thinks I’m a “deceitful, despicable POS,” “evil incarnate,” and “filth,” and has called for both swift karma and quick judgment upon me.

Agreed. Unfortunately, this places the end of my two-year odyssey towards FEMA/National Fire Academy’s prestigious Executive Fire Officer certification in limbo. I’m supposed to wrap up with a course (partially on campus, partially at Gettysburg) in May. I’ve had a previous course delayed by DOGE.

The hockey players or the pop group?

At least 25% of the content of my three books stems from a similar origin story. (Of course I re-read and lightly edited same, but it was mostly good stuff!)

I remember it well! I was about 13 when this aired. Hill Street Blues was one of the few shows our whole family watched together…mom & dad figured us “little guys” (I’m 7th of 8) were mature enough for the adult themes, & the “big guys” (one of whom became a Chicago cop!) found the show compelling.

Frightened for my niece’s stepson, who came here legally about 6 months ago but speaks very little English and “looks” very Hispanic.

Municipal Device is prominent on Chicago Lifeguard Service (as opposed to Chicago Park District, they ran separate beaches & pools from 1934 to 1959, when the CPD took over) logo. Patch is from 1950s: guard in uniform is from 1939 (his name was Hutton Hutchison, I knew him when he was in his 80s).

I love that 3-FG championship kickers Groza, Hornung, and Kramer are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame but NOT as kickers! (Or in Groza’s case not as “just” a kicker.)

“Find 17 points…”

Tony Eason vibes from Drake.

Reggie Phillips! IIRC he was mostly a special teams player for the Bears, pressed into duty when Les Frazier tore his ACL early in Super Bowl XX.

Little known trivia fact: Cartoonist Bud Fisher was an Illinois state high school champion in the sprint relay (which was the odd distance of 2/3 of a mile) at Hyde Park High School in 1903. The anchor leg was run by the team’s (and the state’s) best sprinter, Walter Eckersall!

I remember an Austrian luger winning Olympic gold about 30 years ago, they showed him celebrating afterward with a 3-foot-tall steins of beer. And right then I thought, like you, “why isn’t drinking beer an Olympic event?”

The public health people would probably take issue with it though.